I am going to cheat this week and steal from a very good article written in RealSports.ca.

Basically it claims that the Bruins have been giving every team in the NHL the “punk test” by pushing them around a bit and seeing how far a team will let them go.

Case in point: Lucic hitting Ryan Miller. The Bruins have had numerous other games where they have pushed the phyiscal boundaries of the game, this is just the most recent example.

This is garbage. Phyiscality is a part of the game, and I agree that a bigger, stronger team should use that advantage when they can. But there is a huge step between legal hits and intimidation, plus the odd extra fight, and what the Bruins are doing.

Everyone talks about the players “policing themselves” but in another really great article that can be found here the author argues (correctly in my opinion) that the players policing each other is more romance than reality.

How are you going to stop Chara if he wants to hit you? There is no way, unless you’re willing to take your stick and cut his face open.

The players can’t effectively police themselves, and by allowing that impression to linger and grow, we are heading for another Bertuzzi-Moore moment.

Really, the other NHL teams aren’t the only ones being subjected to the “punk test,” it’s the NHL as well. It starts small, but soon the Bruins will be angrily complaining against any suspension against one of their players.

Shanahan and the NHL need to stand up and nip this problem in the bud. That means that the next time things get rough, a few short suspensions.

Nothing serious, just one or two game punishments. If that’s not enough, the next time it goes to 4 or 6 game suspensions. It’s time to make an example of the Bruins and the other goons in the league.

Riley's Rant & Raves: Rational and Irrational Anger

And that’s me speaking as an NHL fan, not a Canucks fan. But speaking of the Canucks….

!@$%#@$$@#!!!

This is getting ridiculous. Win, loss, win, loss, mediocrity all the way through. Who on this team is actually playing their best hockey? The Sedins get a pass, because they’ve been on form, but everyone else?

This isn’t a team lacking in talent, we have tons of players with more talent than they know what to do with.

But it’s not working.

There comes a point in every season when you have to decide if what you have is enough to win the Stanley Cup. It’s not about talent, or hard work, or any of that garbage. It’s about the team being good enough. Can this Canucks team win a cup?

Right now I’m not so sure.

At the start of the season I said it would take 20 games for the Canucks to get into a groove. Well, it’s been 19. And right now we aren’t in the playoffs.

It’s not just up to the players, its up to the organization. If things don’t turn around in a hurry, its time for radical change. We have a lot of great trade pieces, and a lot of underperforming pieces. Luongo (Lecavlier?) won’t be the only star getting scrutinized soon. The Vancouver media is impatient and fickle.